Re: Tell Us About 2013 Releases

Very much enjoying the Nosaj Thing album. He's still doing what he does best in terms those minimal, spacey, hiccupy beats, but he's also entertaining some new styles and sounds that fit very well into his usual approach.

The new Toro Y Moi is excellent as well. Groovy, catchy, poppy disco/chillwave (is that still what it's called?). Perfect for when summer comes along. Not a bad song on here.

Also, the new Master P mixtape Al Capone is the best rap project I've heard of what little time we've had in 2013 so far. Mostly because it features Fat Trel (and Alley Boy) on nearly every single track.

Re: Tell Us About 2013 Releases

The new Tomahawk record is very good! It's easily the most restrained release from a Patton project i have heard in many years, but it's nice to hear him doing what are slightly weird variations on fairly normal sounding pop/rock songs.

Re: Tell Us About 2013 Releases

The new Tomahawk album certainly isn't bad, but I after one listen I wasn't too impressed. I will admit, aside from Anonymous (which I barely count as a Tomahawk album anyways), none of Tomahawk's albums have impressed me as a whole. What I found with this album was that it had very cool and interesting verses, with very boring, generic choruses. Maybe I need to give it some more time, but that was the case for pretty much every song I listened to. With the notable exception of "Rise Up Dirty Waters," which almost sound like a Mr. Bungle song and I absolute love it.

Originally Posted by bmack86

And it's been long established that Chris hates fun.

Originally Posted by Hatinisbad

I took my niece this year and it was her first Coachella. It was so fun to see it through her eyes. She thought it felt like a magical scene from Shreck. The one where all the fairy tale creatures meet for the first time in Shreck's swamp.

Re: Tell Us About 2013 Releases

Ulrich Schnauss' 'A Long Way To Fall' is fantastic. It's one of those great headphone electronic records where every single note feels so delicate the whole thing could break at any given moment. It's a very peaceful, yet constantly captivating listen.

Re: Tell Us About 2013 Releases

Has anyone else listened to the new Ruby Suns record? Good god that thing is fun. I really like it because it doesn't sacrifice any of their intricacies for delivering a dance track, but each song is completely infectious from start to finish. "Starlight" especially is great; they pick the chorus back up so casually each go around, while subtly changing it and making it more powerfully pronounced. I really love this record, and each time I listen it seems to get more and more fun to listen to. It's been a while since I've done my car dancing with this much enthusiasm.

Re: Tell Us About 2013 Releases

Listened to both the California X and the new Unknown Mortal Orchestra records for the first time today. Both there really fucking rad...California X, although not as good as Metz, would be a perfect opening act for them when they come back around. And the UMO album sounds like it could just be outtakes from the first album, lots of similarities. But they're not really a band I expect to push the envelope too much, so this wasn't a deterrent.

Re: Tell Us About 2013 Releases

Originally Posted by jeffp1717

Has anyone else listened to the new Ruby Suns record? Good god that thing is fun. I really like it because it doesn't sacrifice any of their intricacies for delivering a dance track, but each song is completely infectious from start to finish. "Starlight" especially is great; they pick the chorus back up so casually each go around, while subtly changing it and making it more powerfully pronounced. I really love this record, and each time I listen it seems to get more and more fun to listen to. It's been a while since I've done my car dancing with this much enthusiasm.

Not yet. I'll be honest: I stopped following their work after the first one when I saw them live and thought they were super boring. I'll definitely check it out.

Re: Tell Us About 2013 Releases

Really enjoy the new Unknown Mortal Orchestra. They own their version of that retro sound and blend styles intriguingly. Between UMO - II and Lonerism I'd say that quality retro is in full swing (Not to mention Foxygen's new album which I also really like). I'm just starting Buke and Gases album on First Listen and their odd instrumentation is cool, only a few tracks in so no solid opinion yet.

Re: Tell Us About 2013 Releases

Finally!!! I'm ready D'Angelo...

"I'm heading out to Asia right now praying that we're still on schedule for when we said we were going to turn that record in," Questlove told Billboard. "All last week, I was in the studio finishing (the album). We spent close to 18 hours, well not me personally because I have to go to 'Fallon,' but usually right after work. He's the only person that I'll actually go to the studio with and stay there to six in the morning, re-doing these drum parts. I won't even do that for my own band, but I'll do it for him. Right now, we're just tightening up the loose ends. But I still stand by, 99% of it is done."

"I would not be far off by saying this is probably my generation's version of Sly (and the Family Stone's) 'There's a Riot Goin' On.' It's potent. It's funky. It's an extremely hard pill to swallow. He's one of those artists that have, of course, taken 13 years to follow up a record. It's going to take you about 10 years to digest this record.Totally brilliant. Just the way this society works with music… being able to judge if something is a classic after the first listen, you can do that after thirty seconds on this. And the fact that we started this record in 2004, and it still sounds like it came out five years from now, it is a testament to the timelessness of it."

Since 2004, the music world has seen plenty of false alarms regarding D'Angelo's untitled third album, though Questlove is fairly certain it'll be submitted for review by February, setting up a potential release during the calendar year.

"If this record is not turned in by February, then something is extremely wrong. Because we worked to the bone in the entire month of January just to tighten up all the loose ends."

Re: Tell Us About 2013 Releases

Originally Posted by jeffp1717

Ulrich Schnauss' 'A Long Way To Fall' is fantastic. It's one of those great headphone electronic records where every single note feels so delicate the whole thing could break at any given moment. It's a very peaceful, yet constantly captivating listen.

Re: Tell Us About 2013 Releases

Originally Posted by nosurprises12

You should post this in the LP thread too.

Too lazy! I'm sure people will talk about it in the LP thread when it comes out

Guided By Voices just keeps on rolling....

English Little League--the fourth album from the reunited "classic" line-up of Robert Pollard, Tobin Sprout, Greg Demos, Mitch Mitchell and Kevin Fennell--hums like angry birds along the full spectrum of rock's highways and byways (especially the byways), from rock to roll and back again. Pollard's rebus system of songwriting (sounds made visible, abstract concepts symbolized) strung like fairy lights from the opening song "Xeno Pariah" to the galvanic closer "With Glass In Foot," kettles along at full steam throughout, punctuated by the airier constructs of Tobin Sprout ("The Sudden Death of Epstein's Ways," with it's sweet/creepy emphatic refrain of "Jesus," is a particular standout). Deeper and less immediately accessible than last year's Class Clown Spots a UFO (for instance), but no less richly striated with layers of musical goo, this album is as much the work of a guild of master craftsmen as of a singular visionary genius. ELL (fookin' 'ell!) travels from hieroglyphic to hieratic smoother than a pharaoh's cartouche, and if the quadratic equation that runs through the middle of the record from "Crybaby Four Star Hotel" to "Birds" doesn't solve every problem in your life then you've got actual problems.

The Guided By Voices project, as any fan knows, both requires and rewards effortful listening, and lazybones who dismiss the volume of Pollard's output as (basically) impossible misunderstand the care with which he assembles his dreamscapes. Whiny types will thus be dismayed to learn that Pollard has recently installed a studio in his house (first fruits can be found on "A Burning Glass," among others here), the better to transform his oneiric musings to immediate art, but converts to the clubhouse will be overcome--some will in fact faint--at the news. The plan at present is to release three Guided By Voices albums per year until the end of time, but in the world according to Robert Pollard, "plans" does not mean what it means to you and me. "Plans" to him are moving ideas caught momentarily in stasis, and subject as often to revision as to fruition. Which is to say only that you never know what the future will bring, only what the past has brought, and the past has now brought you the fourth Guided By Voices album in little more than a year. You should probably buy someone a drink to celebrate. You should definitely celebrate. Life is short. Guided By Voices is long.
Indeed. English Little League will be out via Fire Records on the 29th of April, 2013.

Re: Tell Us About 2013 Releases

Originally Posted by Gribbz

Agreed. I feel like I haven't heard an album like this in a while...

I've probably listened to it five or six times in a row. Excellent pacing, as well. It all feels like it is working towards a goal and completely delivers on that goal with the last few tracks, particularly "A Ritual In Time And Death."